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Mitred Archpriest Georgi Polyakov is rector of the St Nicholas Memorial Church in Sevastopol. For a long time, Fr Georgi did a great job in taking care of the spiritual needs of the Black Sea Fleet and in keeping the memory of the Eastern War alive. Since 1991, he led pastoral work in the Black Sea Fleet, including eight voyages on warships to the Mediterranean Sea. In 1999, he participated in the landing of VDV troops in Kosovo; he was a chaplain to the Naval Infantry in Dagestan and Chechnya. He wrote Russian Military Clergy and For Faith and Fatherland. St Nicholas Memorial Church is in the military cemetery of the heroes who fought to defend Sevastopol in the Eastern War (1854-55), where tens of thousands of glorious defenders of the motherland lie buried. We talked with Fr Georgi on the importance that the recent return of Sevastopol and the Crimea has for Russia and the role the people of Sevastopol played in these events.
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Icon of the Mother of God “Stand for Christ with the Martyr’s Cross”
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Interviewer
Before the all-Crimea referendum, many icons of the Mother of God streamed myrrh, and the Crimea rejoined Russia on the day of the finding of the relics of St Luka Voino-Yasenetsky. Do you think that these miracles were just lucky coincidence? Could we say that the Lord blessed this event?
Fr Georgi Polyakov
The uncovering of the relics of St Luka Voino-Yasenetsky the Confessor was a great spiritual event, not only for our diocese here in the Crimea, but for the entire Orthodox world. However, Metropolitan Lazar Shvets of Simferopol and all the Crimea was the one who did it, so, it’s best to ask this question to His Eminence. However, certainly, these earthly events had a heavenly cause. After all, we have many new saints and martyrs, not all of them Russian, and the Lord still has more to show us! The events in the Crimea were a vivid milestone; it saw the Crimean and Russian peoples reunite, yet, not all these people were Orthodox believers. It really was a miracle; yesterday, they were ready to kill each other, but today they’re united, they forgot their feuds, and they shouted “Hosanna” in unison. One can’t do such through human effort alone, so these events reflect a great change in the inner human condition. When our people defeated the Nazis in the Great Patriotic War, many who lost loved ones forgot their grief, now, the same thing happened in the Crimea.
Interviewer
In the Ukraine, one sees persecution of the MP . They’re forcing priests from canonical church to join the schismatics. What do you think will happen to the UOC/MP?
Fr Georgi
We had something like it in the 90s, when the schismatics beat MP priests and stole our churches, so, people remember that, and won’t allow such events again. Then, after the collapse of the USSR, people were still confused, there were few believers, but now, many people are believers, strengthened in faith.
Interviewer
Can you say what happened in the Crimea was a spiritual event?
Fr Georgi
Look at the happy faces in the Crimea, and look at those who spew blasphemy! Undoubtedly, there’s a struggle of the forces of light and darkness in the Crimea. Above all, this is a spiritual struggle and our prayers to the Lord give us strength in this struggle.
Interviewer
Did you experience anything like this before?
Fr Georgi
We’ve had lesser events, but all of them added up into one big victory. For example, the opening of churches in Sevastopol created Orthodox communities, which led to more believers. All of these small victories led up to the present large victory now celebrated in the Crimea; it awakened something good in the soul of everyone.
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Interviewer
Do you think that the Russian revival has begun?
Fr Georgi
Revival is already underway, but it’s not always easy. In Sevastopol, historical memory is alive, passed on from grandparents and parents. Even if modern Ukrainian textbooks blotted out the first defence of Sevastopol in the Patriotic War of 1812, they know about it, because they live amongst the heroes who defended the city; at every turn, you see their monuments. For example, St Nicholas Church is in a unique military cemetery, with the graves of many soldiers of all ranks… admirals and generals, officers, common soldiers and sailors. This is holy ground, as these men carried out Christ’s Commandment… there is no greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. When people ask me about the cemetery, I always send them to look at the soldiers’ graves. Then, when they come back, they’re changed; they’re wiser, they lose controversy and wickedness, because those graves put them in contact with eternity. It’s the largest military cemetery in Sevastopol, immediately after the end of the siege, they buried over 60,000 soldiers here, but when there was urban development in Sevastopol, they brought the remains of soldiers from other cemeteries here, so, no one knows exactly how many soldiers’ graves are here now.
Interviewer
What helped Sevastopol become the vanguard of the struggle for the Crimea? Did the memory of these soldiers buried here in mass graves have anything to do with it?
Fr Georgi
Sevastopol people grow up and live amongst heroes, in Sevastopol you bump into them wherever you go, starting with Primorsky Boulevard, and ending up on any hill, you’ll find some monument dedicated to our hero warriors. Sevastopol people aren’t like other people; they’re no better or no worse, but they’re different. People who come here are sure to soak up Sevastopol’s élan. In Sevastopol, almost everyone has sailors in the family or sailors in past generations or relatives who served the Russian fleet in different ways. This is what grounds us, our history reflects this; our sailors fought for the faith and for our motherland, they were the glory of Holy Rus. From time immemorial, we turned to the words of the Righteous Admiral St Fyodor Ushakov, “Don’t despair! These terrible storms will turn to the glory of Russia”.
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Interviewer
What can you say to our brothers, the Orthodox in Kiev and in the south-east of Ukraine?
Fr Georgi
Firstly, we need to unite, because if the forces of evil unite, then, the forces of good need to do likewise. If we unite, it’d be hard to crush us; if we joined forces, if we were with the Lord, the Lord wouldn’t allow disaster to befall us. For example, we must pray for the repose of the souls of those who died on the Maidan; they died for a brighter future, they didn’t die for the junta in power now. They wanted a better life, for all people, for their loved ones.
Interviewer
How can deal with the junta in Kiev?
Fr Georgi
You can see that the Lord has a purpose. A month ago, who thought that the Crimea would rejoin Russia, but the Lord so arranged it so that everything was as it should have been. Prayer is an enormous spiritual power, it is as the Lord told us… pray in all faith and it shall be done unto to you.
Interviewer
Will this be a permanent recovery and will we keep this winning spirit?
Fr Georgi
Everything depends on us, on how we behave, because if we all now stopped doing what’s right, the angels would turn away from us, but if we pray for one another and help each other, if we call for love, not for murder and violence, then, we’d have prosperity, both in our households and in the state. Only love can create, but hatred only brings the gnashing of teeth, sadness, and desolation. Let’s find the word of love, let’s learn to forgive… Lent is a great time for this.
Interviewer
How is the national spirit that we see now the Crimea different from the nationalistic spirit of the Maidan?
Fr Georgi
The basis of the nationalist spirit is pride, not love. Pride is the root of sin. No other sin is equal to pride. It turns men into demons… into brazen blaspheming liars. A proud man strikes for base reasons, not for higher ones, from contempt of the poor, from love of money, from ambition and lust. For example, when heard the speeches of [President Putin] and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all the Russias, I didn’t hear any hatred, only words of love and respect to the Ukrainians and Tatars, to Belarusians, Russians, and Chechens. Without love, you are nothing. Remember the words of the Apostle St John, “People love on another, this is a great mystery”. These are not mere words. Let’s learn to love each other… it seems so easy, but it’s so hard. He who loves knows how to forgive. We must learn to forgive, to love, and to suffer, and we have Lent as a time to learn.
Interviewer
Can Banderovtsy and other carriers of nationalist evil repent and become Christians?
Fr Georgi
With God, nothing is impossible.
Interviewer
Why isn’t this happening?
Fr Georgi
Why not?! You see, miracles happen. I wouldn’t be surprised if they repent. St Ioann Kronshtadtsky taught us, “Fight against every evil with the weapons given you by God… the holy faith, divine wisdom, truth, prayer, piety, the cross, and courage”.
Editor:
Here are the most important takeaways:
Everything depends on us, on how we behave, because if we all now stopped doing what’s right, the angels would turn away from us, but if we pray for one another and help each other, if we call for love, not for murder and violence, then, we’d have prosperity, both in our households and in the state. Only love can create, but hatred only brings the gnashing of teeth, sadness, and desolation. Let’s find the word of love, let’s learn to forgive… Lent is a great time for this.
Pride is the root of sin. No other sin is equal to pride. It turns men into demons… into brazen blaspheming liars. A proud man strikes for base reasons, not for higher ones, from contempt of the poor, from love of money, from ambition and lust. … Let’s learn to love each other… it seems so easy, but it’s so hard. He who loves knows how to forgive. We must learn to forgive, to love, and to suffer, and we have Lent as a time to learn. You see, miracles happen.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they repent. St Ioann Kronshtadtsky taught us, “Fight against every evil with the weapons given you by God… the holy faith, divine wisdom, truth, prayer, piety, the cross, and courage”.
This is why Russia will prevail… God wills it, but will only grant it if Russia stays faithful and doesn’t succumb to the amorality and greed of the West (both feed on the other… “conservative” greed reinforces “liberal” licentiousness, and vice versa). Reflect on this… the worst sorts in the West spout religious rhetoric (and “praise Jayzuss”) as they smash their boot into the faces of the poor, promiscuously impose the death penalty, and call for aggressive war in foreign parts. They call themselves “Christians”… compare them to real Christians like Tsar Aleksandr Aleksandrovich, who routinely commuted all death sentences (save for crimes against the state). There’s no comparison, is there? Trust no one who praises biznessmeni and their covetous money-centred mindset (such as “Liberty University”… the name’s oxymoronic, isn’t it?).
Keep that in mind when you vote this November. None dare call it blasphemy…
BMD
3 April 2014
Pravoslavny Vzglyad
http://interfax-religion.ru/?act=radio&div=2105
Voices from Russia 
The White Man’s Burden… the West Truly Believes that it Doesn’t Have Double Standards
Tags: moral stance, morals, political commentary, politics, Rudyard Kipling, Russia, Russian, Russian culture, Russian history, Soviet Union, Ukraine, United States, USA, USSR, West, Western Europe
The White (?) Man’s Burden
Life
16 March 1899
As the above cartoon illustrates, the smarmy and condescending Western hypocrisy and arrogance we see today isn’t of recent provenance. They truly think themselves superior to us… and that they have the right to shit on us if we disobey their superior orders. After all, they only have our good at heart, and we’re too stupid to realise it.
Oppose the ravening Western monster at all costs… their evil is contrary to everything good and decent held by both God and man…
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Take up the White Man’s burden, Send forth the best ye breed
Go bind your sons to exile, to serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild–
Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the White Man’s burden, In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple, An hundred times made plain
To seek another’s profit, And work another’s gain.
Take up the White Man’s burden, The savage wars of peace–
Fill full the mouth of Famine And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly Bring all your hopes to nought.
The White Man’s Burden
Rudyard Kipling
1899
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Editor:
The below is from a Russian Evangelical Lutheran author. Note the similarities to Russian Orthodox thought… the standards and ethos of Holy Rus influences everyone on its territory… Christian… non-Christian… secularist.
BMD
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When I read these lines from Rudyard Kipling, I recalled an American film of the 90s about the events in the Balkans, where a terrified mother held out her children, handing them to the brave focused, hard-faced Marines coming out of the plane with the plea, “For the sake of our Lord, milk, our children are dying”. They say that history isn’t in the subjunctive, but imagine that Viktor Yanukovich took courage and gave the order to disperse to disperse the mob on the Maidan. I’m not saying that would be right, but I’m sure that the West wouldn’t have considered it a legitimate action, they would’ve immediately condemned it, and imposed economic and political sanctions against the Ukraine, indeed, much more severe ones than it now lays against Russia. Most likely, the Western Ukraine, without a referendum, would’ve seceded from the Ukraine. I don’t know if they’d declare themselves an independent state or ask someone else to take them in. However, have no doubt, all the West, in unison, would recognise this “free choice of the people”, and wouldn’t even bring up international law. The people’s choice is sacred. The most interesting thing is that they’re not dissembling, they really do think that way.
Today, we often accuse the West of double standards, but in fact, for them, they’re not double standards. Western Europe has been very tolerant in recognising universal human values. The main thing is not to violate human rights, and we, of course, are savages; we’ve always been such for them, and that’s what we’ll always be. Over the past 20 years I’ve been many times in Western Europe, I even lived there a little, and I have friends there with whom I have good relations. However, they like to tell me about Christmas, about the tree, and every time I have to listen, and, by definition, I have to look amazed at it all. They’re sure that all nations and peoples will come to share their dreams, for them, it’s axiomatic, it doesn’t require proof, and whoever says the opposite is lying. The fact that the Crimea voted to rejoin Russia seems impossible for them, so, they dangled the hope to join the EU before them, and they… this could not be! It had to be that someone intimidated them, forced them to do this; a disguised Russian sat under every bush and forced them to vote for Russia. They can’t even imagine how someone could dare to be different, how someone could not wish to be like them.
The Western/European world, despite all its flashy humanism, is a very cruel world; it destroyed and destroys all alternative civilisations, it requires all other countries to conform to their moral standards. For Russia, it’s always been a dilemma, shall we be like Western Europe or be its colony? How do we keep a balance between native originality and pragmatism? Pyotr Veliki chose pragmatism; he realised that a better place in the world needed better guns and good ships. Well, Europe didn’t let any other distinctive civilisation develop… it captured all of them, such as the great civilisations of India and China. What became of the indigenous civilisation of South America? Generally, the European razed them to the ground, and they did the same in Africa. One can only answer force with force. Without European science, technology, and industry one just can’t do it. You answer bullets with bullets, shells with shells, and rockets with rockets. Only in the last 50 years did they gain some humanity, and that was largely due to the USSR. That’s the whole question of how to preserve one’s identity and not lose independence. Although the USSR succeeded in it, it threw it away when it decided to take on the “standards” of European civilisation.
Therefore, they’re very surprised when we accuse them of double standards. Why, their standards are the only ones, and all others must meet these standards, even if they don’t want to. This, then, is the “white man’s burden”, and they’re willing to bear it, despite our resistance. Moreover, they really do wish us well, but they treat us like little kids (this is the most benevolent interpretation of their attitude), whom they have the right to teach… and if we disobey them, they have the right to punish us for our own good.
Editor:
By the way, the term “Evangelical” only applies to Lutherans… it doesn’t apply to American Radical Sectarians. The Southern Baptist Convention, Pentecostalists, JWs, Mormons, “megachurches”, and other such posturing flotsam (the whole “happy-clappy” “Born Again” crowd) aren’t part of historic Christianity at all. You can see this if you go to a Lutheran service and then attend a Fundie meeting (I wouldn’t dignify them with the term service). Who looks closer to Catholics and Orthodox? Why, the Lutherans do! That’s because they’re Christian and “Evangelicals” aren’t (remember what Our Lord said, Not all who say, “Lord, Lord” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven). Keep a sane head about you… Christians do certain things… and “Evangelicals” spit on most of them.
Let’s keep it simple… Russia adopted Christianity in 988… American Radical Sectarianism only dates from the early 19th century. That means that Russia had a millennium of Christianity before the so-called “American Evangelicals” even started. One can see who’s mature and who’s juvenile (and who has the “right” to teach whom!)! America (and the EU) has NOTHING to teach us… NOTHING. We have our own standards, and you may keep yours in your own house, thank you very much. We’ll live in peace with you, but we won’t take on your ways, no way, no how.
That’s the only recipe for sure peace…
BMD
2 April 2014
Vladimir Pudov
Luther.ru
Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Augsburg Confession in Russia Official Website
http://www.luther.ru/society/creativity/2235-2014-04-02-14-19-36.html